Comb foundation



Patented May 4 1926i@ A UNiTEo sfrn'lns 1,583,605 l?e'rslvrgestisce.'.A

nonnen. Boor, ory MEDINA, oHro, Assrenoa To THE A, rfnoor COMPANY, or

` MEDINA, 02E-HO,

A' QOBBORA'EIQLI. y

COMB FOUNDATION.

a Y i Application mea september 11,1922.V 'serial No. 587,393.

' whichby 'the use of dies,ror an embossing operation, is formed on `opposite sides with beginnings with greater or less degree of the cells. 'Honey comb made by the bees f from such ordinary foundation willsag in the hive, with the result that the cells of the upper part will be distorted and combr cells in which the `queen should lay worker eggs will not be used at all for brood or the queen will lay undesirable drone eggs therein. The f worker` orbrood area or capacity of the comb is thus restricted Yand may result in serious reduction in the strength vof the colony. l, Varioushattempts have been made to solve the problem which this tendency of ordinary beeswax foundation has to stretch Vso and sag. All lof suchattempts known to me have been objectionable for one reason or another. Thus wires have been embedded in thev foundation extending in various' directions, these being objectionable because they are expensive and when intersecting wires are employed the bees often construct irregular cells at the point of intersection of Vthe wires.v Wood and other materials have been proposed but because of mechani- "cal difficulties and objection thereto by the bees for one reason 'or another it has not been an acceptable or satisfactory solution of the problem. v The elements or factors entering into the problem are thus economy of manufacture avoidance of mechanical difficulties either in. manufacture or occurring in the use of the foundation in the hive, and acceptability by the bees. By my invention I have produced a foundation which fulfills the requirements just mentioned and my invention consists in whatever isV described by or included within the meaning or scope of theappended claims. In theannexed drawings:

I Figgl is aperspective view of portions of the inner and outer sheets of material which, the best embodiment inproductioii of in what nf" consider ef my invention, are vused comb foundation, the sheets being: shown separated and Vbefore being `favosed;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of aportion of comb foundation when made ofthe sheets 'ofmaterial shown in Fig; 1A with portions of one of fthe outer and `of the inner layers or lamina `broken away.`

i Y Describing the, foundationillustratedin the drawingsiexemplifying' what I now deem the best' embodiment of my invention, it con'- sists of a laminated structure of three layers or sheets, the two louterclayers, 10,A being of,`

pure bees-wax and the inner layer, 1.1, of -a blend fof some vegetable wax or minerallwax and bees-wax, the blending resulting vin the. production ofa composition that is tougher p and harder than normal bees wax, andwhich resists thetenden'cyto stretch 4which characterlzes normal bees wax so that when-the three layers or sheets arelunited into a uni-V tary'or composite'sheet" (which will beaccomplishedy f either natural tendencyY to stick together or to adhere and interlocking byfthe favosed condition), the foundation thusv produced will successfully .resist vdeformation of the cells under conditions Y which foundation of v ordinary. bees wax could not withstand. Although made of three thicknesses the total thickness of the combined three may be made no greater than the thickness of foundation Lmade of ordinary bees wax and thus the distance between the bases of cells on opposite sides of the foundation may be that which is acceptable to the bees and which cannot be secured with other material such as wood, veneer as an inner layer. As pure bees-wax is on the exposed surface of each side, the foundation isV as acceptable to the bees and-*may Vbe worked as quickly by the bees-as if the.

noY

foundation were wholly made of pure beeswax.

In practice a satisfactory vegetable wax that may be used in carnauba wax and a satisfactory mixture or portion is thirty percent carnauba wax and seventy percent pure bees wax. Y

Ifv desired the foundation may be made wholly of blended vegetable or mineral wax Y and bees wax, Beeswill work up ce'lls from such alfoundation but ',as'the blended waxV Vis harder than pure bees wax,the bees do ntwork it so Vreadily as pure bees wax, and it isto be understood that'unless the appehded Vclaimsyresnrict `toy the composite of 30" f'struotion.'

' When they plural' ply embodiment ot my inthan pure bees: Wax,A and to a layers of blended yvegetable and pure beeswax, as some. of them do, the scope of my invention 1s to be regarded as including foundation made of blended ivaX only. But,

ers or sheets of vvax-V oit?. different nature-or properties as to the.y matter of stretching, the inner layer having a greater tensile strength degreeswhich Will resist those forces Which Will' stretch --pure lbeeswax-for cause the same to be stretched.

W'hile IV prefer the use'of' three sheets'. as described',v I do notwish to be limited to this construction. For instance some blends of waxes are quite strong-,and still'` are acceptable-to the bees. hile Ido notfconsider that all the advantages can be secured vby the single ply sheet -oi blended WaX I dolnoty Wish to be confined to. the three ply. con- Norf do; I Wish to be coniined,

ventionis employed7 to making theesamefby the procedure which consists in irstfforining each plyas; a separate sheet nor confined to 'the product-ot suehv procedure because i-twill be vWithin the scope of my invention to provide the pure bees lWax surface by running a sheet of the blended or composite Wax through abathiot.meltedpure beeswax, and thereby apply Vthe coating` or exterior covert ing of A'pure' beeswax on opposite sides of the l. Comb foundation comprisingfblended vegetable-Mivar: andbeesvvax7 the composite being acceptable to the bees. c

2*. Comb foundation rComprisinga sheet that is. a. composite of beeswax and vegetable Wax, the composite beingf'aecept-able; to the bees and havin-gability to resiststretehing under. hive conditions which beeswax lacks.

3. Comb foundationl composed of three layers,V the inner layer'being-,a'composite of vegetable Waxand beeswax,l the composite being acceptable to thebees-7 and. eaclrouter layer being beeswax.v

4. Comb foundationieomprisingf a layer ot blended beeswax and? 'vegetable Wax of greater tensile strengtlav-than-g. beeswax rand which is aceeptable to the@ bees,= betweeny layers of purebeesvvanr.V

In testimonyv whereof I hereunto axmy signature.

HUBER H?. ROOT. 

